➿ Fantastic Haircare: Making Sense and Science of the Curly Girl Method (thread 2)

[botemp]

Offshoot thread from the Fantastic Skincare threads to document the trials and tribulations in order to make sense and science of the curly girl method. We don't necessarily follow it to the letter and are even critical of it in places. Nor are we especially knowledgeable at this point but we're learning as we go. Feel free to join in as we attempt to approach this with an interest in ingredients and try to not buy everything that promises us magical things…

Useful blogs:

Curly Cailín on the golden triangle of healthy hair
Science-y Hair Blog
The Mestiza Muse
The Beauty Brains (podcast/blog)

Understanding ingredients:

Commonly found ingredients in haircare

Useful information about cosmetic chemistry

Porosity:

(video)

Removing build up:

Shampoos which remove product build up

Cationic compounds (of interest to those with buildup prone and/or fine hair):

Cationic compounds found in cosmetics

Polyquats (of interest to those with buildup prone and/or fine hair):

Polyquat buildup

To polyquats or not

Silicones, polyquats and soap

Another cosmetic ingredient to be afraid of?

Protein/Moisture balance:

(video)

Extract and proteins in CGM, a biochemist explains

(video)

Hygral Fatigue

SPF protection of your hair:

UV protectant ingredients

UV damage of hair (pubmed)

Summers sun and your hair

Rice water rinses:

Rice Water Rinse

Elasticity:

Is it too late to improve your elasticity

Managing elasticity and porosity in hair

Hard and soft water:

(video)

Hard water and your hair

Olaplex:

How does Olaplex hair treatment work

Frizz:

Hair frizz science

What's your frizz type

How to tame your hair based on frizz type

Flash Drying:

Flash Drying

Next level nerdery:

Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair (cosmetic chemists' textbook)

I also microplop before adding gel Queen. Quicker to dry and my curls not weighed down with water. I also wet plop before micro plopping.

Interesting Bo that you got good results from a similar combo to the one I've been using for a month: BC clump cream as a leave-in, innersense foam and treluxe gel. I've been quite happy with this - also using innersense hairbath and biolage conditioner.

I really Like the innersense foam but it's expensive and I'm suspecting a little doesn't go as far as it does with other products - what do you think about this Bo (or anyone else who has the foam)?

Yesterday I swapped the clump cream for the treluxe LIC but didn't get as good results - but that could have been because I used a bit too much oil to SOTC. Been using a couple (and I mean just 2!) drops of jojoba oil but yesterday too much came out. I've bought myself a pipette now! And must try again with the treluxe LIC - I used it as my hair was getting a bit over moisturised and wanted to add some more protein.

I'm Finding I have a very fine balance between moisture and protein and my window of balanced hair is very small.

I've never heard of Rahua. What makes the shampoo so magical?

Hhhmm hadn't thought about hair products being cheaper on black friday. Must look into that.

I'll watch that video too - thank you.

Forgot to add that glad you are happy with the haircut ninny.

Really want to come to UK and get
A proper curly cut but we're in full Lock Down here again.....

I'm not sure what ingredient is responsible for it Sophie, it has a few special Amazonian ingredients like the Rahua oil but I think it's just formulation. My hair legitimately swell up and draws up moisture from the environment as it dries and it really hydrates it at the core as well. It's so much more bouncy, it's marketed as for thirsty hair and it really does deliver for that. It's pretty much like doing a rice rinse treatment for me, but my hair y fuller. There were some disgruntled reviews from dry haired folks so I really think it caters specifically to my type of hair that isn't very dry but is dehydrated.

I do find the Innersense foam to go a long way, I don't need much but I use it on the roots only (and really only a very little bit) or on top of gel (have not tried that with the Treluxe gel). I've had the travel size for half a year (maybe longer?) so I'm thinking the full bottle will last me a year.

I might check out the Rahua brand then but I also want to try the Bounce curl low poo too.

I usually use 2 -3 pumps of the foam to style. How much do you use Bo? I have also tried putting little blobs round my roots.

And how do you know your hair is dehydrated but not dry (or vice versus)?

I've never tried foam on top of gel. I'm still trying to get some consistency with simple methods! If you put gel first then do you microplop out the water first? I find my hair gets very heavy with big clumps if I don't microplop before applying gel.

Interesting video on top down styling. Not seen that method before. I always think I can't be bothered with the sectioning of the hair to style, but I probably should try it.

I'm always a bit nervous about getting product too close to the scalp. It doesn't cause any issues for you, obviously Bo.

I just watched the video Bo. She has AMAZING hair - talk about a good advert for the method. I will try to attempt it next wash day.

Also a very unusual brand name: Uncle funky's daughter, was it?

No, I just do a traditional plop, that works best for me but I think it's a low porosity thing, I think I applied all products and then plopped in that scenario. I don't use much foam over gel, just glaze over a little bit, concentrating on the roots and then squish in whatever is left behind on hands. Haven't done it in quite some time though, it was more to control baby hairs that stuck up. I've also used the tiniest amount of Innersense foam to SOTC.

I sort of settled on having dehydrated hair as opposed to dry or dry and dehydrated as it obviously lacked oomph and adding the traditional moisture products just made it lank and sleek, but a weighed down sleek. Protein just made it coarse and dry (which is not its natural state). It doesn't like oil or anything heavy weighing it down but responds really well to rice rinses (which hypothetically feed the core of the individual hairs and improve elasticity through hydratuon) and light weight products. Apparently all curly hair is dry due to the scalps natural oils not being able to travel down the shaft due to the coils and sometimes it's also dehydrated. Wavy hair isn't necessarily dry as natural oils move easier over waves but often fine and fine hair is more susceptible to dehydration as the core is much smaller, so tends to lose that quicker.

The pumps on the travel size are smaller, I think, so difficult to say but if using it on my whole hair I also use 2-3 pumps but I'm guessing that's about half?

Ninny, I tend to stick to lightweight products, so no, but I keep things like conditioner and the BC clump cream away from the roots as much as possible, gel I probably don't get too close either as I use praying hands method while upside down (this is why I like the upside down method too, you don't end up getting loads of product deposited at the roots by default, at most a bit of it with scrunching) only the foam goes at my roots and that's really lightweight, I don't really get the idea it attaches to the scalp in any meaningful way.

Yes the uncle funky is a funny name, bit of a pricey product though (€40 here locally and no samples 🙈).

Do you mean wet plop by "traditional plop" Bo? No idea if my hair is dry or dehydrated but think more dry. The hormones seem to have sent it into more high porosity than before too. Britt curls (an IGer uses about 4 pumps of innersense for her whole head but no idea if she gets them gifted too).

Ouch €40 is very pricey for a gel!

If I have time I will try her method. I do wonder how long she has been doing CGM for. It seems that if your hair is in great condition
and you're getting good wash days generally, then most techniques seem to produce decent results. I sometimes use brush styling but it obviously takes that bit longer and quite often i'm pressed for time.

I don't think she's strict CGM, she has another method that's quite popular and she used olaplex products for that which aren't CGM, so would suggest she's been through the whole cycle and then weaned out of it already, so probably a few years I'm a bit confused as she says she has low density hair, if that's low density what the heck density do I have, negative hair density 😱😱

I think it's a very big bottle tbf, 16oz (but no idea what that is in mls and too lazy to Google, but probably double the size of a standard gel bottle?).

I always have to Google all the plops, I just comb through after washing hair, apply products and then wrap it in a t-shirt for 20-30mins, which I think is a dry plop 🤞

Once you've got the hang of the method it's pretty quick, granted I don't apply a curl cream type product like she does as I use BC as LIC so that probably cuts down on time. She does rewet her hair, which I don't (as it's still plenty damp due to low porosity hair) but should probably try it but no idea where my spray bottle has disappeared to, might just be the excuse I need to buy one of those continuous mist ones.

What is the purpose of SOTC with a little foam please?

Also, what are people doing about sleeping?

It catches anything that escaped from the cast, I don't find it all that useful on a regular basis but if you've somehow ended up with a crap effort cast it can fix that by quite a bit.

I'm still sleeping with a silk cap although it's stretched quite a bit

Up until now ninny ive been pineapple-ing on a silk pillowcase but.... I've just bought a bonnet (the one manes by Mel has). It wasn't super expensive as I'm not sure how I will like sleeping with something on my head (and couldn't face the ridicule of sleeping with a ski buff on!!). First night tonight with new bonnet.

I washed today (with good results actually) but found I couldn't be bothered to do any styling that took longer than applying products and scrunching them in (so didn't try new technique). It's all a bit depressing here back in lockdown so it took all my motivation to actually get my hair washed.
(And no Bo she doesn't look like she has low density hair but I did notice the finished dried hair had very fine curl clumps and lots of volume and that can often disguise low density).

How did you sleep Sophie?

I've just bought some Aussie Freeze Gel. I'm also going to order a silk lined woolly hat, having just been for a walk in the wind and cold. But that's it - no more hair products. I have quite a collection which freaks me out. I think I'm going to have a bit of a clear out and get rid of the ones I don't like.

I don't think mousses suit me and I have some VO5 if anyone wants them (I have 2 - they were so cheap and I don't think they make them any more).

Why does some hair go boing and others doesn't? Is it dependent solely on where you sit on the wave/curl scale?

I think it's down to individual hair thickness and therefore the ability to maintain elasticity. Larger inner core on thick hair means elasticity is less impacted even when slightly damaged so it'll be more springy unless damaged more substantially.

There is a difference in curl pattern too iirc, curly hair tends to grow out vertically and then drops where wavy hair doesn't as it's pretty much straight at the root, it'll only be voluminous at the root if elasticity is good and there's enough density to physically hold it up.

The Bonnet was fine Ninny and didn't bother me but I'm not sure how much difference it made as sleep on a silk pillowcase anyway. I didn't pineapple underneath it so that was really the advantage for me.

I also pineappled and put the bonnet on for a yoga session which I think was a good idea for when my head is down on the mat. Wouldn't use a bonnet for very sweaty exercise though.

I think I saw those silk lined hats too Ninny. they're handmade in different colour combinations? Was tempted as well so please let me know if you get one.

Thanks re mousse offer but the cost to get it here isn't worth it and I'm not sure Royal Mail will send aerosols anyway - my sister has some bottles of the Pantene mousse for me and wasn't able to send them out.

Re boings (welshie curl girl?!), I understand it's related to having enough elasticity which I think means making sure your hair has enough moisture. (Similar to part of what Bo is saying but not as comprehensive and scientific!!)

Also not sure where Quirky is but I saw a silver-haired INGer raving about a purple shampoo and conditioner from Noughty (which I understand is a very reasonably priced range).

Giant ringlet today!

Sophie* I ordered from these guys in the end as the other one didn't have the colour I wanted (grey). I wear a lot of jewel colours and I wanted sth neutral.

black-sunrise.co.uk/

Yes, re Welsh curly girl!

I was interested by the sound of those hats but I'm really annoyed by 'satin', that's a finish not a fabric. So many CGM product sell 'satin' pretending it's silk satin. Considering the hat itself is acrylic I'm guessing it's polyester satin and it will be a sweaty mess. What's the "other one" you didn't order from, please?

Zalando has a good black Friday offer on Curlsmith, 30% off on a lot of the products (and free shipping but I think that's always the case).

Bo it's curlyandkind.wixsite.com

Vegan wool?! And silk satin.

I agree. Wool and silk would be preferable.

I've had a sort out of my hair products. I've come up with two different routines to try to get some balance. I've cut out all cationic surfactants and polyquats for now.

Happy with last night's wash. Still tucking the front behind my ears sometimes. Its long enough not to now, but today I have an errant strand that's sticking out and annoying me.

This is with the As I Am Curl Jelly which I really like, and the TreLuxe gel.

Just trying to catch up, have been a bit awol with paperwork for dd2 (sen) and a wisdom tooth extraction. I have heard of noughty, SophieLion, but I haven't tried it. I still have lots of the Jean Paul Myne Black Pepper shampoo, as I was alternating it with the purple Osmo mask, which I've just finished.

My hair has been completely losing it's cast/definition by the afternoon, so last wash I swapped my Curlsmith LIC for my old Cantu one, to shove back some moisture. It worked pretty well, it might be I need to play with which one I use. I haven't decided if I need to change my gel, yet. I think I've pretty much worked out the top of my hair is low porosity: no dye, heat etc. but it goes to mid porosity by the ends, as it's so long. Sometimes, you can really see it when the cast is strong at the top but lost on the bottom. I'll try and watch that top down video, it sounds interesting.

Your perfect products sound great, bo.

Noughty has a sale on if anyone wants to try, probably the best time!

Goodness ninny - your hair is looking really good!!! Much more curly than the last photos you posted. What techniques are you using to apply products?

And why have you cut out cationic surfactants (what are these?!) and polyquats (know Bo doesn't like these either).

I'll have a look at that website too, thank you. The other hat company is curly and kind Bo (as Ninny says) but I couldn't get her link to work. Try this maybe curlyandkind.wixsite.com/store/shop (this was open on my safari so hopefully should work).

Nice to "see" you again quirky and hope the tooth extraction wasn't too painful an experience.

I was also thinking it might be a nice idea to share product info like we used to (still do?) on the skincare thread. So what products we liked and why, what we didn't like, techniques etc.
What do you all think?